Down the Road
by Spoiled Sweet
Summary: Itachi didn't die like he wanted. In fact, nothing had gone as he had planned. Instead, he's alive in a world after the war, after the Akatsuki, and after Madara. He's been pardoned and welcomed back to Konoha with opened arms as a hero when he had expected to die a villain. A story of what comes next in the future he never intended to have. M for language and sexuality
1. Aftermath

**Down the Road**

**One**

* * *

"I don't even know where to begin. Your circumstances—everything you have been put through is unspeakable. There is no way that the village can repay you for the sacrifices you've made for its sake. Who knows how many lives you have saved? I swear that, this will not be kept quiet anymore—it can't be. The end of this war is a new beginning for Konoha and I feel we must begin by righting the wrongs of the past. I swear that everyone will know what you have done for Konoha and Fire Country. They'll all know the truth. You will be cleared of all charges and your name honored in the village or I will die trying to make it so."

Itachi comprehended the situation and the words coming from the Godaime Hokage's mouth, but he could not believe it was real.

This had not been his plan. Sasuke should have killed him, should have been sitting here in his place being promised a new beginning. But things had spiraled out of his control. His little brother had begun to walk a path that Itachi could never have foreseen him taking, his plans to break the boy and engineer his own death by his little brother's hands having worked out not at all how he had wanted. He had seen it for himself, had been keeping tabs on Sasuke's slow descent down the same path the rest of their clan had taken and he could not stand by and watch that happen.

He had barely survived his brother's attack, pulled back from the edge of death by Kisame. His brother had been taken away by Madara, the Kiri-nin had explained hastily as he stitched Itachi's wounds closed even though neither of them knew quite why he was doing so. Sasuke had been told the truth about their clan's demise and had sworn to destroy Konoha for his clan and his brother.

_"The villages are bracing themselves for a war."_

_ "I would hope so, since it _is_ coming. That cannot be denied."_

_"I have been loyal to Madara for some time. From the beginning, really," Kisame confessed as his pale eyes glowed an unearthly white in the light of the fire that burned between them. "This plan of his is nothing new to me. Pein, the others, you, and me—we've all been his puppets. Your little brother is just another one like us now." He rubbed his forehead. "I don't know why I stepped in. I know you well enough to know you aren't about to get on board with Madara's plan, but… you've always been a friend to me, Itachi, and I know it wasn't in the plan for little brother to end up like this." _

_ Itachi was standing, holding his bloodied, cloud-patterned cloak over the flames and watching impassively as it caught fire. He let it burn a little before dropping it and letting it be consumed whole. He allowed himself to relish the sight just a little. His movements were rigid so as not to pull on the stitches that Kisame had put in to close his wounds and to not strain his exhausted, aching muscles. "You have been a good friend to me all of these years as well, Kisame. At times, I trusted you even when I did not trust myself and I will always value that," he said finally. "But I cannot let Madara's plans to come to fruition. His is not a world I will have for anyone; not my village or anyone else's. So, if you are still loyal to his cause then we are now enemies and only one of us can leave this camp alive."_

_ The blue man said nothing for some time before he began to chuckle and his lips parted just enough to reveal his razor-filled maw. He—the man himself and his beastly appearance—had never frightened Itachi. The Akatsuki was an organization of monsters, but Kisame was the least of them as far as Itachi was concerned. The ex-Kiri-nin was not a saint by a long shot, but nor was he. _

_ "You have always had a flair for cutting to the marrow of things, Itachi," Kisame said before hefting himself up to his feet. _

_ Itachi instinctively braced himself for an assault and for a moment they simply stood facing one another._

_ "A long time ago," Kisame began, almost contemplatively as he raised one hand and began undoing the catches of his cloak, "Madara promised me a world without sin; a world of truth. But I've been thinking and his plan… it's just another lie. It's his lie, but a lie all the same." He shrugged out of the cloak one shoulder at a time and then caught it before it could fall to the ground. He rubbed the worn fabric between his fingertips and then shook his head. Reaching out, he held it over the fire like his partner had and the flames were nearly licking his wrist before he finally let it go. For a moment that seemed to last a short eternity, he stared into the blaze and then his eyes met Itachi's again. "The truth is that you're the only one who's ever told me the truth. So I will go where you go, Itachi."_

It was only by the very tips of his fingers that Itachi was able to reach out and pull Sasuke back from the point of no return. By then, Danzo was dead, but that was a service to Konoha by every measure. Then there was the war. A nightmare by all accounts, but Itachi was glad to have witnessed it. To know that the villages could align themselves at such a time held hope for the future. That and it had been gratifying to save lives rather than take them for the first time in so many years; to fight alongside his countrymen and not against them; to be at his brother's side and not his opponent.

"Itachi?"

He raised his eyes to meet those of the Godaime Hokage's and then looked back to the campfire that burned between them. "I am glad to hear this, Lady Tsunade."

Tsunade hummed at this as she watched him. "You don't seem glad," she replied.

A wry smile twisted one corner of his lips. "Forgive me. I had been quite prepared to be dead long before this so I am somewhat out of sorts." He frowned to himself at this and met her eyes again. "Sasuke…?"

"He hasn't been seen by anyone since Madara's fall," Tsunade answered with a shake of her head. "We have teams searching for him—as many as can be spared now—and many others are keeping watch, but we haven't heard anything yet."

"Will he be pardoned as well?"

"Your circumstances are enormously different, but it can be managed, I think. We're in the position to be quite forgiving, you see." She let out a long breath. "I have never been deluded about what it means to be a ninja. Sometimes, lesser evils must be countenanced for the sake of the greater good, but what happened to you and your clan… Konoha is supposed to be better than that. Or it ought to be. It _will_ be in the future if I have anything to say about it."

"I do not regret what I had to do for the sake of my village."

Tsunade scoffed. "That isn't the point," she replied dismissively. She sighed and rubbed at her eyes with the forefinger and thumb of one hand. "It'll take some time for it to be on paper and official given the mess we have to clean up here, but even so you may consider yourself a cleared man, Itachi, and, for whatever it's worth, I'm sorry. For everything."

Itachi stared into the fire for a while before nodding. "I appreciate that. I will be forgiven, I hope, if I do not return immediately to the village."

"Of course."

He nodded. "Thank you, Lady Tsunade. You should go and join the festivities. You will be missed."

The woman rose to her feet just as Kisame stepped into the circle of the firelight. The swordsman inclined his head toward her respectfully and she nodded in reply before whisking off into the dark that shrouded the small campsite. They were not even a half-klick away from the nearest camp of the allied forces, where neither Itachi nor Kisame felt they quite belonged even though moods and spirits were high after the victory and this could be the first time in a long time that either one of them might have been welcomed _anywhere_.

Kisame settled down heavily onto the earth opposite of Itachi. Again, the campfire burned between them, mere embers now in the circle of rocks. "So?" the swordsman prompted curiously. "That sounded like it went well."

Itachi hummed. "I am a free man," he said with no small amount of audible wonder in his tone. "What of you?"

"Well, the Godaime Mizukage told me to stay the hell away from Water and out of her hair," Kisame answered with an indifferent sort of shrug as he folded his hands behind his head and reclined back into the grass. "I think that means we're good."

The Uchiha smiled softly at this. "Congratulations."

"Likewise. Have you heard anything about the little Uchiha?"

Itachi shook his head. "No. Sasuke has not been heard from or seen since victory was declared. I suspect that he will not be for some time, if I know him as I think I do."

Kisame made a throaty, non-committal grunt in reply. Then, after the quiet had long settled between them, he asked: "So, where to now?"

"Anywhere we wish, I suppose," Itachi replied. "But Kisame, even though I would greatly appreciate your company, you are hardly obligated to continue following me."

The swordsman snorted as he closed his eyes. "And I told you: I will go where you go," he answered simply.

The Uchiha hummed at this and what might have been a smile pulled at one corner of his lips again. "And if Konoha had decided to drag me off in chains?" he wondered.

Kisame grinned and it was quite menacing even with his eyes still closed. "Well, I've never seen the inside of a Konoha prison cell before and it would've been fun busting out," he replied. He frowned contemplatively and then cracked open an eye to regard his companion. "Hm, kinda sounds like a party, now. I wonder if they'd still do that if we asked."

For the first time in years—certainly for the first time in the that eight Kisame had known him—Itachi started to laugh. It was a genuine, open-mouthed laughter that pulled his mouth into a wide smile and creased his eyes with happiness. "Perhaps," he agreed. He shook his head as his mirth subsided slowly and he reached to take another log from the pile of them at his left. He threw it onto the fire and then drew one knee up to his chest to perch his chin upon it as glowing bits of ash lifted up on the breeze and then faded into the dark above them. "We will leave before dawn tomorrow. I will take first watch."

* * *

They did leave before first light the next morning. Only in time would they know if the Kages upheld their promises to clean their respective slates, but neither of them had any pressing desire to linger and see that out for themselves.

Not sure what else to do, Itachi decided to go in search of his brother (and not choke on the irony of the turnaround). When asked if he objected, Kisame had laughed and wondered if they had anything better to do and no, no they did not. Water Country would probably never welcome Kisame back and for Itachi the idea of returning to Konoha was a strangely numbing one, as it was something that he had never viewed within the realm of the possible and therefore had never considered. As he had told Tsunade, he had long planned to be dead and he was still not quite accustomed to the idea of being quite the opposite. He wondered if time would also eventually amend that.

They kept an ear out in the following months, listening in the towns and hamlets they passed through for news on how the great villages were faring and while progress was slow things seemed to be boding quite well. The alliance was still in place if only because no one could afford true enemies at this point in time. As for their promised pardons, they had not encountered anything more than the occasional, weary glance from passerby.

Time wore on and eventually when Sasuke's trail went cold somewhere in the far northern reaches if Lightning Country almost a year after their search had started, Itachi decided that they were finished looking for the time being. Kisame had clapped a consoling hand on his shoulder and declared it for the best. Then, since it was drawing very near winter, they decided to take up residence in the first tiny, ocean-side hamlet they came across where two able bodies were more than welcomed by the meager population.

For Itachi it was simultaneously very strange and exceptionally refreshing to find himself doing things like repairs and carpentry for the locals, including fixing the roof of the house that belonged to the ancient woman that had agreed to take him and Kisame in for the season. Kisame himself, of whom the villagers had been quite leery at first, had proved invaluable in helping the local fishermen fortify the docks for the coming winter.

"Compliments of our esteemed hostess' orchard."

Kisame laughed and caught the apple Itachi threw at him. He was perched at the end of one dock, water running in rivulets down his bare back and arms and dripping down off his feet and the cuffs of his trousers into the water below. Itachi took up a seat on a nearby piling and bit into the apple he had brought for himself. The day was bright and clear, but the air was brisk and piercing foretelling what was to be expected of the oncoming season. Even the warm currents that flowed north from the southern waters wouldn't keep it at bay forever.

"I hope there's more than this for dinner," Kisame said.

"When I left it was still cooking," Itachi replied. "However, when I attempted to check its progress I was reprimanded quite harshly with a wooden spoon. I decided not to press the issue."

Kisame laughed and then he bit into the apple. "Not sure how she does it with vision worse than yours," he muttered. "Speaking of which…?"

"Since I have ceased using my Sharingan, my symptoms have eased," the Uchiha replied with a shake of his head. "It is nothing to be concerned about at present."

"Except you're going to be in a bit of a bind eventually," Kisame answered. "What about that village of yours? All those fancy medics and no one can help you out? I mean, you might as well make use of it if you're clear to go back there now."

Itachi shrugged. "There might be someone—the Godaime, perhaps," he said. "But I am not quite prepared to return yet. Besides, I have grown rather accustomed to my impairments, so I hardly notice them anymore."

"Yeah, but maybe in the spring we'll head that way and stay long enough to get you patched up."

"Perhaps."

* * *

They didn't. They left in the spring with the village's promise that they would be welcomed there any time they needed shelter. From there they did head south but only to go west toward Wind Country. There hadn't been much work in the winter, so money was a priority and they had heard in Sound that Wind was having troubles with bandit activity stirred up by an influx of criminals from Rain, who were eager to take advantage of the fact that many of the country's ninja were still abroad dealing with the aftermath of the war even a year later. The Kazekage was offering payment per head and while Itachi was not particularly fond of the idea of being reduced to bounty hunting, they had little choice in the matter.

It proved to be a non-issue, though. Instead of participating, Itachi simply watched the fights from atop a nearby dune and let Kisame amuse himself with the bandits' numbers since there was not enough skill present among the rabble to sufficiently challenge either of them.

"Fifty-six criminals at six hundred ryo a piece," Itachi said once they had sealed the bodies away into scrolls to be transported. "That is nearly thirty-four thousand ryo."

Kisame wiped at a bit of sweat beading on his brow. "Not bad for being here just two days," he said. "Should we test the waters by going right into Suna?"

"You are just hoping for a confrontation."

"Hey, I'm not denying it. I was nice and bored all winter and I deserve some kind of reward for that."

Itachi chuckled as he sealed away the last body. "Yes, but Konoha has been very kind by keeping their end of the agreement thus far and not pestering us with hunting parties. We had best not press the issue by annoying one of their dearest allies."

With that he summoned a crow and Kisame's lips turned in a way that might have been mistaken for a pout as the bird carried off the scroll. "Killjoy," he muttered, watching the bird disappear in the glare of the sun.

* * *

As they were two people accustomed to always taking orders, Itachi and Kisame were wryly amused to find themselves somewhat at a loss for what to do with their time now that it was their truly own. But moving from place to place had a comfortable sort of familiarity to it, so they never settled anywhere for more than a month or two at a time. They earned money doing odd jobs in the towns they settled near or by bounty hunting and then eventually they moved on when it suited them.

Itachi continually dismissed the idea of returning to Konoha and Kisame never pressed the issue beyond initially bringing it up. Itachi's eyes were not getting worse by any considerable measure and while the occasional migraine left him in crippling pain he was too stubborn to allow it to hinder him.

As for Kisame, he knew himself well enough to expect to grow tired of this relatively peaceful existence, but it hadn't yet lost his interest. He had grown up cradled in the bosom of bloodshed and slaughter and while it had initially been unnerving to no longer _need_ to be on guard, he found that after a while he quite enjoyed it. Because of his blood, he had been born as a slave to Kiri and then he had given himself over to the masked man and his empty promises, but now he was free and what a curious thing that was—he was _free_.

He tried never to give much thought to these things—he tried not to give much thought to anything for the most part—but he found himself mulling them over as he stood in the shallowest part of the river, where the water just reached his waist.

In a few weeks it'd be five years since the war, something that was still hard for him to really believe. But it was _some_ kind of landmark; an anniversary he felt he ought to at least remember. Maybe he'd go back to the old monastery that he and Itachi had called home all winter and have a drink to mark the occasion, just in case they were on the road again by the time the day actually rolled around.

Dinner first, though. He and Itachi had been in a friendly competition ever since Itachi had managed to successfully hunt a deer with ten-points on its antlers, which beat Kisame's previous record of a nine-point. But fishing was something _no one_ would ever best him at or he'd eat his own sword.

"There you are."

He had heard and smelled her as she neared the shoreline, but she also hadn't been attempting to cover her approach. She smelled like spiced tea and the whiff of black powder on the breeze had given her away as a ninja rather than a civilian, but he wasn't immediately concerned. "I hope you're not here to kill me. I'm kind of in the middle of something."

"If anyone would be stupid enough to attack _you_ while standing on a river bank, they would deserve to die. I just want to talk."

Kisame grinned a little to himself as he watched the trout swimming just beneath the glossy surface of the water. Smart girl. She sounded pretty young still, so he decided to kindly spare her faith in their species by not mentioning that some people in the past _had_ been stupid enough to do just that. "Konoha-nin?" he wondered as his eyes continued to follow the shadows swimming around his knees.

"How do you know that? You haven't even looked at me."

He shrugged. "People from Fire Country always drink this weird, spicy tea that gets shipped out of the Capital there," he replied. "You lot always smell like it to some degree or another."

"Really?"

"Yep. Konoha-nin smell like spiced tea, Kiri-nin smell like sea-salt and this kind of moss that grows everywhere on the islands, Kumo-nin smell like Ozone—ha!"

He snatched two trout out of the river, one in each hand, and then turned to look at the bank and show them off.

The girl standing there surprised him a little since he actually recognized her—or he thought he did; pink hair wasn't really something he came across very often, not even in all of his years of travel. It was up in a high swishing ponytail, with her head band tied to hold the stray pieces away from her face. She was a pretty little thing, slim and petite, wearing white shorts and a red, silk coat that reached her mid-thigh. The coat had long, loose sleeves and was held closed with a leather belt that rested cock-eyed on her because of the uneven weight of the pouches that hung from it. She had a standard issue holster strapped to one thigh and her boots stretched up clear to her knees, fronted with metal shin-guards.

Kisame tossed her one of the fish as he waded closer to the bank and she caught it with ease and just the mildest looks of confusion. He chuckled and then snapped the neck of the fish he still had before tossing it onto his shirt, which he had abandoned in the weeds on the bank.

"So, what do you want?" he asked.

"Was that necessary?" she wondered as he took the second fish from her, her eyes concentrated on the other fish.

"Better than letting them suffocate," he replied, snapping the second fish's spine with just as much ease as the first and then throwing its body onto his shirt as well.

Her forehead wrinkled a little at this, but she had seemingly shaken it off by time she looked back to him. "Where's Uchiha Itachi?"

"Why?"

"I have something to deliver to him."

"Like what?"

She sighed. "You really needn't be so suspicious," she replied. "You were both pardoned after the war and if I was going to attack you I wouldn't have made my presence known first."

"Force of habit," Kisame answered with a shrug as he hooked his thumbs in the waist of his trousers. "So?"

The girl rolled her eyes. "It's a letter from the Hokage," she said. "I'd tell you what it was, but he really ought to be the first to hear it."

He eyed her for a moment longer and then snapped his fingers when realization suddenly struck him. "I remember who you are now," he said. "You were with the Kyuubi brat, right? One of his teammates. One of Sasuke's too, I think."

"Yes on both accounts," she replied. "Naruto is my partner on this mission, actually. It being more of a diplomatic endeavor, we're considering it practice for the future."

"Yeah? Where is he?"

"We split up. He chose to continue to search for Itachi when I decided to look for you instead. I think he still remembers pretty vividly when you talked about cutting his legs off to make him easier to carry."

Kisame laughed aloud, all of his teeth bearing at once into a smile. "Good times," he said cheerfully. "You'll have to say hi for me if I don't see him myself."

She rolled her eyes, but a smile pulled at her mouth anyway. "Will you take me to Itachi, now?"

He shrugged. "Can't hurt, I guess." He stepped up onto the bank and then knelt down to scoop up his shirt—fish and all—and then gestured toward the path. "So, why did you come looking for me if it's Itachi you want?"

"There wasn't much of an actual trail for us to follow out of the town nearby and asking the locals about a dark-haired young man living in the area wasn't getting us anywhere," the girl explained. "However asking them about a large, blue man with gills? Yeah, that got much more useful results."

Kisame grinned. "Yeah, I've never been much for blending in," he replied.

"I wouldn't have guessed."

He laughed again and she smiled back pleasantly before offering out her hand to him to shake. It was still weird, to a man who'd been so accustomed to being an outlaw and a criminal, to be met with any kind of open friendliness.

"I'm Haruno Sakura."

He raised an eyebrow at the proffered hand but then accepted it. She had a grip like a vice and he grinned. "Hoshigaki Kisame."

* * *

Itachi knew the boy, of course. The whole of the shinobi world knew the boy who was credited with stopping the war. Uzumaki Naruto, the Kyuubi vessel, the son of the Yellow Flash, and undoubtedly a future Hokage of Konoha. His little brother's one-time best friend. He had tried to kill the boy once and was grateful that he had failed.

And the boy—the savior of the ninja world and a hero in every village—was knelt in front of him, his body bowed and his forehead resting lightly on the dusty floor he had been sweeping when Kisame had come down the path with the two Konoha-nin. The blond boy had been hiding slightly behind the girl, who had seemed quite engrossed in her conversation with Kisame.

The boy straightened to sit back on his heels and Itachi looked again from him to the letter he held in his own hand. It was marked with both the seal of the Hokage and the seal of the Fire Country Daimyo and offered, in no uncertain terms, apologies on the behalves of their offices and the pardons of both as well as their gratitude. It promised him everything in writing that Tsunade had promised with her words five years ago, yet it hadn't felt quite as real then as this did. Eventually, he had thought, they would come for him again. The offer was made on the high of victory and in the wake of a war, but it'd eventually be revoked.

"Kakashi wanted me to apologize for it havin' taken so long," Naruto said when Itachi finally looked to him again. "It wasn't easy sortin' through Danzo's mess and then the war clean-up and the village is just now getting back on its feet. Paperwork's a bitch. The evidence stash you told Baa-chan about helped a lot, because we all know that Danzo was a fuckin' rat, but the Daimyo's kind of a moron too so we had to be convincing—don't tell anyone I said that about the Daimyo, though"

"Kakashi?" Itachi repeated with a frown. "The Copy-nin?"

_Roku_daime, he realized belatedly.

"Yeah, Baa-chan retired about six months ago," the blond replied.

"Is she well?"

"Oh, yeah she's fine," Naruto said. "It's just that she's gettin' old and she figured that this would look good as Kakashi's first official act as Hokage or somethin'—come in with a bang or whatever. You didn't hear about it?"

Itachi shook his head. "We have made it a point to stay out of the way of the larger villages and news travels very slowly out here," he answered.

Naruto nodded and opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by a thunderous crash and then booming laughter that Itachi knew immediately to be Kisame. After the girl had shoved Naruto forward with instructions to "try not to sound like an idiot", she and Kisame had made themselves scarce so as not to intrude on what they must have seen as an official and private meeting. From what Itachi could see from his position near the doors, the girl had launched the Kiri-nin through a nearby tree trunk and Kisame was picking himself up from the wreckage and grinning.

"_Uhhh_—" Naruto looked very concerned. "They gonna be all right?"

"They ought to be." Itachi paused for a moment to mull this over more thoroughly, but then nodded. "Kisame has simply been anxious for a good spar—we have worked together for so long that our matches are not enough to really amuse him. He will not risk permanently harming a prospective partner. Your teammate, if I recall correctly, did manage to match and defeat Sasori several years ago and I imagine she has grown stronger since. Besides, Kisame at present is unarmed. She will be fine, I think."

"_Ha_, yeah," the boy replied with a grin. "Sakura's not what you'd call delicate, that's for sure." He looked to Itachi and then something in his expression changed—saddened. "Um…"

Itachi briefly met his stare before looking to his lap as he folded the letter in his hands and ran his fingers along the seams of the folds to crease them. "I have not heard from my brother," he said softly. "We have followed through on a handful of potential leads in the last few years, but nothing has ever come of them. What of you?"

"The same," Naruto said and there was something painfully young about the way his shoulders curled in a little on himself.

Itachi let out a long, slow breath. "I think that it is very likely he will not be found until he wishes to be," he explained, wanting to offer consolation but not certain how to go about it in an effective manner. "I have known that for a long time and have yet to fully accept it. I do not expect it to be easy for you to do so either."

"He's been pardoned."

"He likely knows that."

"Why won't he come home, then?"

"To what?" Itachi wondered and Naruto looked at him sharply. "To a village and friends he betrayed? To you? His dearest friend he tried to kill for the sake of power? His pride led him astray and made him a fool for Orochimaru and then Madara. How could he bear it? Between that and the shame he must feel, to come home would be to face endless reminders of what he nearly became."

"You didn't really _help_. You might'a had good reason to do what you did, but you—"

"My plan was flawed and I had no way to ensure it would play out as I intended," Itachi cut in, without harshness or spite. "That is my fault and I accept the burden of it entirely. I will not forgive myself for the pain I caused him; for everything I did to him as I attempted to decide for him his destiny as mine had been decided for me. But that is between the gods and me when I finally find rest. Please, leave it there, Naruto."

The boy looked shocked by this and then his expression softened a little and he looked to his lap. "I'm sorry. I didn't it mean it like… well, not like _that_." He sighed as he raked a hand through his scruffy hair and then scratched his cheek. "Sasuke made his own choices and has always made his own choices and I can't stop that and it's not your fault. You didn't push him toward Orochimaru. He picked that path himself."

The brawl outside continued, if the noise was anything to go by, but it was easy enough to ignore.

"You wanted something better for him. That's what big brothers do," Naruto went on.

"I wanted it as much for myself," Itachi admitted.

"Doesn't matter. We all _want_ something for the people we love."

Itachi allowed himself a small smile, even though he wasn't entirely sure why the boy's words meant as much to him as they did.

"Is all of what you said… is that why _you_ won't come back?"

He froze at this and frowned at the boy, who was watching the flickers of blue and pink disappearing and reappearing in the yard beyond the doors. Kisame was still laughing, so apparently the girl was faring well enough to amuse him. "I…" Itachi paused to search for the correct words to explain what he thought should have been rather obvious.

"Everyone knows what happened," Naruto said. "Baa-chan promised you that they would. I guess the old men on the council thought she'd gone off her nut, but she made sure of it anyway. Everyone knows that you did what you did for Konoha. We know you saved the village and there's no way to…" He shifted a little, as if suddenly uncomfortable, but with something more than his cloak or the heavy weight of the pack he carried; with his own skin in some way or with a feeling inside of it. "How do you…?" He paused again and squinted into the middle distance and then lowered his head and his eyes to stare at the floor instead. "How do you _thank_ someone for killing their own family?"

Itachi found a spot on the ceiling that fit his fancy and stared at it long and hard as he tried to quell the torrent of emotions suddenly roaring through him. "Have you ever noticed that the Hokage always thanks you specifically for your _sacrifice_ after a mission?"

"Kind of?"

He smiled at that too because Uzumaki Naruto had saved the ninja world and still sounded so very, very young and naïve. "He does not just mean your time or the physical cost of your job," he went on. "Every kill you make is a sacrifice for the sake of the village and those who will inherit it. That kill is as much the Hokage's burden as it is your own because it was his order. The little pieces of your selves that you each give away when that happens is yet another sacrifice for the village and the people who rely on it. You do not thank someone for taking another's life, but for their willingness to do something awful while you are both only able to _hope_ that it is for the best of something bigger than yourselves." He took a breath. "My family did not consider the fact that there was no victory to be had in a revolt. They gave no consideration to the power of the other clans, who would have not be easily subjugated, or the fact that a civil war would have torn the village to pieces and that other villages would have taken advantage of the chaos and attacked. They Uchiha were powerful, but they would have never had the strength to overcome those odds. A war of that magnitude would have destroyed everything and there would have been no throne for anyone to sit upon when it was finished. So, when I think on it I try to remember that I regret the _necessity_ of my actions, but not that I followed through with them. I believed then that it was for the best and I still believe that."

"Then come home."

Itachi furrowed his brow a little. "I am not my brother," he said.

"Tch, no kiddin'?" Naruto grinned a little to show he meant no ill-will by his response and then he shook his head. "Sasuke has nothin' to do with this. You say you did everything for Konoha, so come back to the village and see for yourself what you saved. I think you deserve that much." He scratched at his cheek as he cast a weary look around the dilapidated walls of the monastery. "Plus, it's gotta be better than way out here in the middle of nowhere, right? And nothin' says you gotta stay any longer than you wanna."

_Home._

Itachi mulled on that word when he looked back out the doors to watch Kisame and the girl, who were standing and talking now, clearly engrossed in a conversation he couldn't quite pick up on as they were both turned at a poor angle for reading lips. Then the girl asked something indistinct that caused Kisame to start laughing again and good-naturedly pound her on the shoulder.

_Home_. The idea had gotten no less strange since the first time Kisame had mentioned the possibility. It still made him weary, but he couldn't deny how enticing it was.

"This is the warmest it's gonna get all summer in River, ain't it?" Naruto wondered aloud, his face turned upward toward the ceiling. "It's not bad, I guess. I mean, the winter must've sucked but summer will be all right. Bet you miss Fire Country summers, though."

Itachi raised an eyebrow at the boy even as he couldn't quite resist the smile that pulled at his lips. Clever kid. Much more manipulative than he would have credited the loudmouthed blond he had first met all of those years ago with being. "I do," he admitted at length. It was the truth, too. Gods, did he ever miss Konoha summers, when everything was warm and welcoming and smelled like flowers and spices.

Naruto grinned at him and just like that, somehow, it was decided. Uchiha Itachi was going back to Konoha.

* * *

1. Yeah, yeah, yeah I know. The last thing I need to do is start yet another story, but this kind of came out of no where and blindsided me and I had to write it so whatever.

2. Blame SunMoonNeko for this because I certainly do. We were discussing ita/saku rather non-seriously and then suddenly it got very serious and then it turned into this so whatever.

3. I happily admit that I have basically told canon to go fuck itself in this story, because seriously fuck canon. Itachi isn't sick either in this because that was a cheap as hell way for him to die that came out of nowhere and I love Kisame so he here's too.

4. Spoiler: Yes, I'm calling Madara Madara rather than Obito because that little "twist" annoys me so much that I can't speak but in angry gargling noises when I talk about it. So, yes, I'd rather think he's some ancient as hell psycho from the way, way back when.

5. This story is not going to be heavy on the dramaz or the adventure or the angst and don't bitch to me about wanting more of any of those things if that bothers you. The manga gets so weighed down in quasi-philosophical bullshit and angst that it seems to forget it's trying to tell a fuckin' story and not give us some moral lesson on why war's bad (no shit, Kishi). This is a story of redemption and renewal and it's going to focus on what comes next when we've dusted ourselves off.

**Please review.**


	2. Home

**Down the Road  
**

**Two**

* * *

Itachi had experienced a fair amount of pain in his life, both physical and emotional. He had been tortured, stabbed too many times to count, had broken various bones, and torn nearly every ligament in his body. Such was the cost of being a ninja. They paid for their careers—for their power and their strength—with pounds of flesh and rare was the ninja who was not nagged by aches and pains as they got older.

But the headaches brought on by the damage to his eyes were by far the worst pain he had ever experienced. He was hard-pressed to come up with words to even properly describe them. They were infrequent, which was in itself a blessing, but they came on suddenly and knocked the wind right out of him. Then they lasted for hours—sometimes days. Worst of all, they often left him helpless. Kisame was an invaluable friend at these times. He kept watch, tended to the camp, and did what little he could to ease the pain with the medicinal supplies they carried between them.

For the most part, he worked through them. Idleness was a curse since it left him with nothing to think on but the pain. However, despite, his best efforts to ignore them, he was sometimes brought right to his knees at the peak of the attacks.

"Sakura!"

Naruto meant well, but his voice was piercingly loud and it made the pain reverberate in Itachi's skull, like a bell that had been struck.

The blond, would-be diplomat and his travelling companion had agreed to stay the night at the monastery when Itachi had extended the offer. Or rather, the boy had agreed on both of their behalves as he was not eager to return to the inn, where they had been staying, and the old woman who owned it, who he spoke of whilst making exaggerated groping gestures with his fingers. Haruno had rolled her eyes, but thanked Itachi profusely for his hospitality.

Itachi woke early, as he did every morning, and was surprised to find Naruto awake already as well and meditating in the early morning light pouring in through the opened doors of the monastery's modest and overgrown courtyard. He was never as eager to fight as Kisame, who lived and breathed for a good match, but he had agreed to the boy's request for a quick spar and was now dearly regretting it. Not only had the boy nearly taken his head off with that blow he should have been able to dodge, but his instincts were chastising him for showing that he had such a weakness despite the fact that the boy wasn't a threat and he could never predict the onset of his headaches.

This headache really couldn't have had worse timing.

"Naruto, guess what's not helping this situation."

The girl sounded deceptively calm and Itachi wondered where she had come from or when. He hadn't even heard her approach. Shun-shun maybe? Or maybe she simply moved _that_ fast on instinct when one of her teammates yelled for her.

"Uh...?"

"_Yelling_, so shut up. Itachi—oh!"

There was a hand on his shoulder and another on his chest, bracing him when he pitched forward and not of his own accord. He was on both knees, one hand covering his eyes as some irrational part of him feared they were trying to make an escape from his skull, although if anything it felt as though they would be tunneling out the back of his head.

"Another headache, Itachi?"

Kisame was suddenly also very near and sounded so knowing and smug that Itachi might have glared at him if he hadn't already been occupied. The Kiri-nin had been careful to never _nag_ him on the subject, but he was probably exceptionally pleased that one of these attacks had occurred while they had a medic on hand to witness it.

"Headache?" Haruno asked in a voice pitched with concern.

"His eyes."

She made a soft sound as if all of the mysteries of the universe had been explained to her just that easily and suddenly Itachi was being hauled to his feet. For a moment, the strength and ease of the movement made him think that it was Kisame, but the hands pressing into his waist and pulling his arm across slender shoulders were those of the petite medic. He then recalled how easily she had thrown Kisame—who was a very large man by all standards—straight through the trunk of a tree that, judging by its girth, must have been at least two-hundred years old and _it_ had shattered like glass. It was probably solely by the grace of the man's constitution that he had not also been shattered into just as many pieces.

"Sakura?"

"I got him. Just stay out here."

Itachi, on instinct, wanted to protest, but the words eluded him, so he allowed himself to be shuffled back into the monastery where it was blissfully dark and he could chance opening his eyes. "This is not necessary," he told the girl as she moved toward the litter she had used as her bed, which was closest to the entrance, and maneuvered them both to the floor to sit. The thin, well-worn wool blanket smelled like herbs and earth—like the girl herself.

She seemingly ignored him and he was surprised when he found himself lying back with his head in her lap. However, the sudden tenseness that pulled his body taught like a bowstring _didn't_ escape the girl and she gave him a flat, almost bored look. "I'm not going to hurt you," she said.

She couldn't, really. He had _years_ of experience on her and more than a dozen different ways of killing her even at such a disadvantageous angle. "This is inappropriate."

Haruno made a very unladylike sound in the back of her throat. "Whose chastity are you worried about, exactly? If mine, I thank you for the consideration but it's unnecessary and if yours, I guarantee that that's really, _really_ not what I'm interested in."

There were twin snorts of amused laughter from somewhere behind them near the entrance and without looking he knew that it was Kisame and Naruto listening in. Without looking either, Haruno produced a sharpened kunai from her holster and flung it toward the entrance. It had apparently very nearly hit its mark, both members of their audience shouting surprised protests and then scurrying away.

Itachi was torn between amusement and discontent. That had been an exceptional throw for someone who apparently hadn't been trying, but his head and shoulders were still in the awkward position of occupying her lap.

"How often does this happen?" she asked, her eyes focusing on him again as one hand came to rest gently on his chest and the other began to push strands of black away from his forehead.

He flinched at the initial feeling of her chakra invading his system and tried to instead focus on the almost affectionate way she was combing her fingers through his hair—when was the last time…?—and on the girl herself. She had changed in many of the same ways the boy had. She had not grown taller like he had, but she had more of the air of a ninja about her and less that of a young girl. Her movements were confident and easy, like a dancer's, and her features had also become more refined; had lost the soft roundness of childhood and had smoothed and hardened a little. It felt strange to call her exotic, given the wide variety of people he had met in his time and the uniqueness of his own travelling companion, but she was. She was simply much prettier than strange. Wherever she had come from when Naruto had called for her she clearly hadn't had the time to put her hair up as it had been the day before and it fell, long and thick over her shoulders and back. However, another sharp, shooting pain ripped through his skull and it brought his attention back to the present and the way her chakra felt like hot water being poured into his veins. He fought it instinctively. "I cannot say. I try to avoid this kind of position," he said.

She shot him a wry look. "Uchiha Itachi is a smartass," she murmured, sounding almost contemplative. "I'll have to make a note of that for the future. Now, how often do these headaches happen?"

Her chakra tickled up through his ribs and his lungs, making him inhale sharply and tense up. "Just every so often," he ground out.

Haruno seemed to pause at this and he felt her chakra waver briefly. "Naruto said that you didn't want to leave straight away this morning. Why?"

He frowned a little at both her abrupt change of topic and the way her chakra suddenly retreated away from his chest and instead moved down his arms and legs, into his fingertips and joints. It was such a strange feeling, but he found that his muscles were loosening gradually and he wondered who exactly was doing that, him or her. "We have debts to pay yet," he said carefully as he tried to calm his natural unease with this situation. He had lived too long being forced to be constantly on guard that even now, when he had no true reason to be concerned, he could barely stand to be in such a position of weakness. "The people in the village nearby were very kind to us over the winter. I would hate for that to go unacknowledged."

"That says a lot for them. This winter was the harshest we've had in a long time," Haruno murmured. "It flooded in Fire Country. I can't imagine how bad it must have been here."

"It was very cold and it snowed frequently, but River country does not get the rain in the winter that Konoha does, so the flooding has only been just as the thaw has set in. It is rather normal for this region, however, so I do not think the locals were concerned about having to share supplies with those passing through. Still, they were very generous and I would like to properly thank them."

"Have you spent much time in River over the years, then?"

Itachi frowned fractionally as he tried to read her and was surprised to realize that she was simply being curious. This might have been an attempt to calm him and loosen his tongue, but her questions weren't the probing, searching questions of someone attempting to gather intelligence. She was instead simply interested in conversation, trying to make him comfortable with her presence and proximity. How long had it been since he could converse easily with another person, other than Kisame? He had always been wary of and on-guard around the other members of the Akatsuki, careful to hide the fact that he was not one of them in anyway. He wondered if it was simply in her nature or a role she had taken on as a medic.

"Some," he said, hesitant and unsure now how to go about this. Of the two of them, Kisame was the talker and oftentimes he was just as content with silence as Itachi was. What conversations they did have were easy because of their years of acquaintance and he could say with all honesty that he really trusted the Kiri-nin. "And you?"

She shrugged. "From time to time, but River has always been more of a way-point than a destination. How's that feel?"

Itachi blinked at her, confused at first, and then it hit him very suddenly that the pain was _gone_. Not completely—a smallish ache still lingered behind his eyes—but it was barely an annoyance compared to the pain he had been in just minutes ago.

He blinked again, this time in disbelief. "How…?"

Haruno laughed a little. "You aren't the first Sharingan user I've worked on," she said as he sat up and then turned to look at her directly. "Kakashi was my captain for a _long_ time before he was the Hokage and he had headaches that would knock him flat on his back for days. Of course, he just let me think he was just _lazy_."

That rather sounded like the Hatake Kakashi that Itachi had known once upon a time and he wondered how much the position of Hokage had changed him. Focusing on the present, he stared at the girl a moment and then nodded. She had been distracting him with the chakra she had been working through his arms and legs, probably a tactic she had developed to deal with other ninja who were equally wary of others' chakra invading their bodies. "Thank you, Haruno," he said softly. "I truly mean that."

"You're welcome," she replied with a shrug and a smiled. Then she got to her feet and offered him her hand to help him up as well. "Please, call me Sakura."

He looked up at her for a moment and then at her hand and before he could stop himself, he took it. With ease she pulled him to his feet and they both stood there facing one another, clasping the other's hand. She smiled again and her hand—not the powerful, callused weapon of an enemy, but the warm, gentle digits and palm of a medic and an ally—squeezed his gently before falling back to her side

"Sakura," he repeated with a nod. "Thank you. I did not know anyone could treat this."

"Well, that wasn't really a treatment," she said, wearing a touch of a frown. "I just numbed some of your pain receptors and soothed the inflammation for the time being, so it's pain management. If you'd let me, I _could_ treat you." She shifted her weight onto one hip and folded her arms, staring at him as if she could see something more than just his person. Her eyes came back to focus and met his. She smiled. "From what I've been able to gather while studying Kakashi's condition, the pain comes from damage done to the nerves and chakra pathways over time, caused by the Magnekyo, in tandem with some other things that I can't explain without boring you to death." She smiled a bit bashfully and shook her head. "I can't stop the damage from happening—that fault is in the makeup of the Sharingan itself—but I can fix the damage that's been done depending on how much of it there is. Of course, you were so on edge today that your chakra kept trying to block mine, so that'd have to change."

Itachi genuinely felt a bit sheepish at this, like a scolded child. "I apologize, I—"

"You've been too removed for too long to trust anyone, especially with this kind of thing," she cut in gently. "I wasn't scolding you, Itachi. I really do understand." She shifted her weight again. "I'm not going to push you to accept treatment, although I hope you will. I know from Kakashi… well, he compared the headaches caused by his Sharingan to torture and he made it seem like he would have preferred the torture. If it's the same in your case, I would really like to help you."

And she meant it. He was taken aback by this, but years of schooling his features to never give away his feelings left his expression impassive and unreadable. "I will consider it," he said carefully.

The medic nodded in acceptance of this. "I wouldn't spar anymore today, if I were you," she went on with a backward glance at the doorway. "A raise in blood pressure might put you back where you started. Besides, it might be best to attend to those loose ends you mentioned sooner rather than later. We should get moving while the weather holds."

"That would be best," he agreed.

He watched her kneel back down onto her makeshift bed and begin rifling through her pack. A moment later she produced a comb and had already started to rake through her hair before noticing his intent gaze. "I can do yours next, if you'd like," she offered and she waved the comb at him, as if attempting to lure a dog with a bone.

Itachi smiled at that. She and Naruto teased one another mercilessly, but it was obvious enough that they did so out of affection. So, it surprised him how easily they paid him the same favor. "I might hold you to that," he replied. "How long have you been a medic?"

She raised an eyebrow at him but then shrugged. "Let's see, I was just about to turn thirteen when I started training under Lady Tsunade and I turned twenty-one this past March. So, eight-ish-odd years then? It feels like it's been a lot longer than that." She flapped a dismissive hand. "Whatever. I can't really remember _not_ being one. Well, I _can_. I just prefer not to." She pulled a short length of leather cord from her pack next and then gathered her hair back into it, finishing the knot with a flourish and a smile. "There. Would you mind if I went into town with you? I wanted to have a chat with the apothecary before we left the area. He had some interesting herbs that don't grow in Fire country and I wanted to see if I could get a few sprouts to take back to the greenhouses."

"Of course."

She smiled at him and he tried not to enjoy that overly much.

* * *

The mission was going both better than expected and much, much more weirdly than expected and Sakura wasn't really sure how that worked out in the grand scheme of things.

On one hand, she hadn't expected to actually _find_ Itachi or Kisame. Maybe their less-than-sparkling track record when it came to locating the other wayward Uchiha in the world had tainted her optimism somewhat, but she really hadn't expected their information to be correct as to the pair's whereabouts. Then again, what did they have to worry about? They were free men and even if Konoha or Kiri had gone back on their promised amnesty, what did two ninja of their caliber _really_ have to worry about?

On the other hand, the whole scenario was _weird_. She knew that they had both participated in the war as a part of the alliance and from the stories they had been invaluable to the effort, but there was still something strange about it all. Her team had fought the Akatsuki and she had first met these men while they were working for said organization and wanted to kill her best friend. It was important to be flexible as a ninja and to accept allies wherever they could be found, even in an old enemy, but it was a big adjustment to make. Then again, that wasn't anything new. Five years ago, as far as anyone in the ninja world was concerned, Uchiha Itachi had lost his mind and slaughtered the entirety of the noble house of Uchiha for no reason. Now, he was hailed as a martyr who had made an enormous and tragic sacrifice for the sake of his village.

Then again, all of those things had become easier to adapt to upon actually meeting the men again. Kisame was downright affable and she found herself growing rather fond of him already and while Itachi was reserved—she would have never guessed he would be anything else—he was also exceedingly polite and _surprising_. If it hadn't been a trick of the light, he had _blushed_ when she had initially laid his head in her lap and his wry humor about the situation had caught her completely off-guard.

"I'm sorry about earlier."

Itachi blinked at her, obviously taken by surprise. They had chosen to walk the road to the nearby village rather than run it, it being still early enough in the day to postpone their travelling just a little more. "For what?"

"If I made you uncomfortable," she replied and she could feel herself blushing despite all of her best efforts, so she pretended to be fascinated by the canopy overhead and hoped he wouldn't notice. "I can be kind of… forceful when it comes to patients. Years of dealing with the likes of Hatake Kakashi has conditioned that in me."

Itachi nodded. "He is as he was when I knew him then," he said, dry and deadpan as ever.

She laughed anyway. "At any rate, I'm sorry. It's probably been a long time since you've seen an actual medic and I can understand your hesitation."

"You offered your help as a friend and I treated you with suspicion," he replied as if offering a concession of some kind. "That was not entirely diplomatic of me."

"Understandable, though."

"Even so."

Sakura smiled at him and was taken a little aback by the gentle smile he gave her in return. It seemed like such a strange contrast to the man she had heard so much about. "So, we're square?" she asked.

He nodded at her. "I think so."

An amicable silence fell over them then as they continued down the path together, more comfortable now than either had been previously.

* * *

"I did not ask and simply assumed it to be so, but I trust that Kisame will be welcomed in Konoha?" Itachi asked just as the first thatched-roof buildings of their destination were drawing into view.

Sakura nodded. "He contributed significantly to the war effort and Fire Country has revoked the bounty it had previously placed on him, but he probably won't find any work as a ninja in Konoha and I have no idea what his status is elsewhere so he might very well still be wanted outside of Fire Country. It's a bit dicey, I guess."

"As long as he is welcomed in Konoha, there should be no problem," he said dismissively. "Kisame would probably be disappointed if he was no longer a wanted man. He would find it boring, I think."

She looked at him and then tipped her head to the side, curiously. "Would you come back to Konoha without him?"

Itachi frowned thoughtfully at the sky as he contemplated this. "I do not think I could," he concluded at length. "Kisame has been my friend for a very long time and a partner even before that. It was because of him that I did not die from my last meeting with my brother and it was his interference that allowed me to steer Sasuke away from the path of his own destruction. I owe him a debt I cannot pay."

Sakura nodded. "I'd follow Naruto into Hell," she said by way of agreement.

He smiled fractionally at this and then considered her with a thoughtful look. "You take Kisame's oddities in stride," he noted. "Is that because of Naruto?"

"Partially, I suppose," she replied. "Naruto has definitely set my personal benchmark for 'weirdness' quite high, but I don't know if that's all there is to it. I find Kisame fascinating and I probably would anyway, especially from a medical standpoint, so maybe I'm just as strange in my own way as he and Naruto are in theirs." She suddenly laughed and then shrugged. "But then again, most ninja grow accustomed to the weird and unusual, so maybe I'm jaded by experience."

Itachi "hmm'd" quietly at this. "Still, even ninja allow themselves to be influenced by things as petty as appearance," he said. "Genjutsu, after all, still works in a world filled with people trained to be constantly aware of their surroundings. The mind will always be a plaything of the body in that way."

She laughed at that and it was a pleasant, happy sound. "True." She smiled at him and he liked how opened and honest the expression was. He thought he rather liked that about her. It took little to no effort to read her and it was really quite refreshing to meet someone who saw no reason to hide their feelings or motives. "I have to admit that I wasn't sure what to expect when Kakashi sent us out to look for you."

Itachi nodded. That was certainly understandable. She had started her career as a ninja in the time of the Akatsuki and when all that anyone knew of him was that he was a remorseless monster. As strange as it was for him to be standing where he stood, it must have been equally so for her. "What conclusions have you drawn?" he asked. "If any."

"Well, a ninja tries not to make any hasty decisions."

"Of course not," he agreed.

She smiled again. "But I think I might find you just as fascinating as I find your partner."

For some reason that felt like acceptance and he couldn't help but smile back at the girl.

* * *

"Fuck! That hurt, you blue son of a bitch!"

This was followed shortly by Kisame's raucous laughter that Itachi and Sakura heard from the path as they were coming up on the monastery, both of them having finished their business in the village. Itachi was carrying a woven basket of the seedlings that Sakura had gotten from the apothecary, having taken it from the girl out of courtesy. With genuine interested, he listened as she described the uses of the flowers they would hopefully grow into in time.

"I told you to keep your guard up. It ain't all that different from sparring unarmed. Try again. I mean, if you're not ready to pussy out on me."

Sakura snorted as she and Itachi came to a stop at the edge of the courtyard. "I really should have called this one."

They had assumed that Kisame and Naruto would be packed and ready to move on by time they came back. This had been a gross overestimation of the pair's attentiveness (or an underestimation of the contagiousness of Naruto's inability to focus) and instead they were sparring with a pair of wooden practice swords that Sakura could only assume Kisame and Itachi sparred with. Or she hoped so. It seemed unnecessarily risky to spar with actual weapons when so far removed from civilization.

Taking the bait, Naruto lunged again and had no sooner swung his weapon than his blow was parried, he was side-stepped, and a sound hit was landed across his low back, eliciting another rapid-fire round of swears and curses.

"Naruto has never trained with a sword," Itachi noted, clearly not even needing to ask to be certain of that as fact.

"Being a Vessel he has massive stores of chakra at his disposal so he tends to work mostly with ninjutsu," Sakura explained with a shrug. "Unless it's a kunai, weapons aren't really his 'thing'."

The Uchiha hummed at this. "Vessel or not, his skills really should be more well-rounded, especially if he is looking to become Hokage in the future. It is good to be skilled in all aspects of combat. The straightforwardness of Kisame's preferred style of fighting belies his true, technical skill with a blade. He would certainly be the right person to learn from if Naruto really wanted to," he replied, his head tipped in interest. "Though, he would be a rather… unforgiving teacher, I think."

This was punctuated by the sound of Kisame's sword landing its mark again, this time with a resounding _crack_ of the wooden blade against Naruto's ribs. Itachi and Sakura simultaneously winced in sympathy for the blond, who began to breathlessly damn the Kiri-nin to hell while also calling into question the legitimacy of his birth. Kisame simply laughed in response and none-too-gently reached out with his sword and smacked the flat of it against Naruto's upper arm, inspiring some more swearing. "You always swing from the shoulder," he scolded, mimicking the attack Naruto had used. "It makes you easier to read than a picture book and slow as shit."

Sakura rolled her eyes when she saw Naruto preparing to take his stance again. Given how hesitant he had been of the swordsman the day before, it was nice to see that they had found some kind of ground to meet on and Naruto earned a few more points in the diplomacy department for the extra effort. That said, she could see where this was going already and it was bound to take _all_ day. "I don't suppose either of you planned on packing up sometime this century?" she demanded.

Naruto waved a dismissive hand at her. "We'll do it after I kick his ass."

"Yeah, all right, _I'll_ just pack up then. Kisame, try to keep my job simple and not to hurt him too badly."

"Hey!"

"_Haw_! I'll try!"

* * *

"So, bloodline limit?"

"Possible, I suppose."

"You suppose?"

"Orphan."

"Oh, sorry to hear that."

"Eh, that's how the cards are dealt sometimes. It's not so uncommon, especially in Mist."

"We have scads of them in Konoha too. The last war didn't do us any favors, especially so soon after Pein's attack. So, what about your name?"

"Had it already, but I never looked into my background to figure out the why or where; didn't care much about it, really."

"What about Samehada?"

"I was apprenticed out when I started to show promise as a ninja. Samehada was my master's sword. Then I killed him and now she's mine."

If Sakura was bothered by this, she didn't show it as she admired the weapon, which was pristinely wrapped and propped against a tree behind the swordsman. "Do all of the Seven Swords get passed on like that?"

"Most times. Samehada's pretty choosy, herself. She wouldn't let just anyone take her."

"Lucky you."

Kisame laughed and Sakura smiled at the way the deep sound reverberated in the stillness around them.

Their little group had stopped for the night after the sun had already set and they were sitting together by the fire, the two of them turned so that they could watch Itachi and Naruto spar just outside of the reach of the firelight. Itachi was speaking to the blonde about something in a low voice and Naruto was listening intently, his brow furrowed in concentration. Jutsu, Sakura thought. It was the only thing that ever held Naruto's attention like that.

"We're gettin' bored over here, Itachi!" Kisame suddenly called. "Go back to the fight!"

Itachi held up a hand to shush his partner and Kisame spared Sakura a toothy grin that she returned.

"So, what about you?" he asked when it was obvious that the other two weren't going to get back to sparring any time soon. He sat with one knee lifted and his elbow draped over it, his hand clutching his uncapped flask of rice wine.

Sakura shrugged. "I don't have any bloodline limits to speak of, no bloody history or dead sword masters, no tragic story," she said with a shrug. "Then again, Team Seven's general infamy has more than compensated for that I think."

He chuckled and with a free hand reached for another piece of wood to throw onto the fire. "True enough."

A comfortable silence fell over them as Sakura continued watching Naruto and Itachi as they talked and sparred, the latter activity usually ending in Naruto crashing gracelessly to the ground. Taijutsu was probably one of Naruto's stronger points, but next to Itachi he looked clumsy and inept. The Uchiha's every move was smooth, calculated, and effective with each one flowing seamlessly into the next without a moment's worth of hesitation.

Itachi had once been feared simply because of the monster the stories made him out to be, but even though he seemed to be a truly gentle soul by nature it was quite clear to Sakura that he was still someone to be regarded with no small amount of respect. His skill was undeniable and the ease with which he fought made it seem like he had already won and the fight was a mere formality after the fact. It was mesmerizing.

"How's the situation look in Konoha?"

Sakura raised an eyebrow at this, even with her eyes still trained on their companions. "I think you'll have to specify."

"Recovery-wise. Itachi's kept an ear open, but you don't hear much out this way."

She shrugged. "We're doing all right," she said. "The first three years were rocky, but we're getting back our momentum now." She shifted a bit in her spot and then rested back onto the palms of her hands as a small frown tugged at her features. "I… what was left of the Uchiha's compound was destroyed in Pein's attack. I wasn't sure how to tell Itachi."

Kisame frowned a little too, which served to emphasize the harshness of his strange features. Then he shook his head. "I wouldn't worry about that," he concluded finally. "He wouldn't want to go back to it anyway. Is the property still his?"

"Of course. I mean, it was Sasuke's for a while of course, but then his land rights were revoked when he was declared an enemy of the village too. Now that they have both been pardoned, it's actually Itachi's. He was firstborn." She shifted a little. "There's a shrine and a small garden there now, but nothing other than trees otherwise, I'm afraid."

The swordsman nodded solemnly at this, but his eyes were also now focused on his partner and the Vessel as they sparred. "We should be able to make something of it. How about his eyes?"

Sakura sighed. "I can treat the cause of his headaches and reverse some of the damage that's been done, but if he would continue to use the Magnekyo my work would only serve to delay the inevitable blindness, not stop it. As it is, it could take a few months to stop the headaches completely. I wasn't able to really assess the damage earlier." She looked at him from the corner of her eyes. "Is Konoha going to be strange for you?"

Kisame shrugged at this. "Why would it be?"

"Well, it's not home."

He chuckled at that and it came out almost bitter sounding. "My "home" doesn't want me. There's no love lost there, though."

Sakura watched him as he reached out and prodded at the fire with a stick he held. He pushed a few of the burning logs around and sent up a plume of burning ashes into the air that glowed for one moment like fireflies before being blown out and whisked off by the wind. "Do you ever miss it?"

Kisame raised an eyebrow at her and then seemed to pause to give her question some serious thought. "Maybe a bit," he admitted after a moment. "Have you ever been to Kiri?"

"A few times since the war, while serving as a diplomatic liaison," Sakura replied. She glanced briefly toward Itachi and Naruto, who were again sparring, but then looked back to Kisame just as quick. "It's a beautiful village."

"That it is," he agreed. "Do you know anything about Bloody Mist?"

She shifted a bit. "I've done some research. I mean, I study bloodline abilities, so it comes up now and then," she murmured. "Konoha intelligence estimates that more than twenty bloodlines were made extinct by the end of the purges. I don't know if there are any estimates on the total death count."

"It'd be into the hundreds of thousands," Kisame answered before taking a drink from his flask. "It'd be hard for anyone to make an accurate guess, though. No one exactly kept count of the bodies that were piled into shallow, mass graves and left to rot." He spared her a meaningful look at this. "There are some stains you just can't wash out."

Sakura looked again to Naruto and Itachi as the pair began to spar again. "As far as I know there aren't any mass graves waiting to be stumbled upon in Fire Country, but the victims of two of the greatest injustices ever perpetrated by the powers that be in Konoha are right there," she replied blandly. "Even so, I'm not ready to give up on the village as a wholly lost cause. The war gave us a new beginning and there's a different generation in power now. The only thing we can do is try to do better. I think bringing at least one of our stray Uchiha home is a good first step."

He grinned at her, baring all of his dagger-like teeth at once, and nodded. "It could be that," he agreed. He tipped his flask toward her. "Then to Konoha and the eternal optimists it breeds."

He took a quick swig and then offered her the flask. She accepted and took a drink of the rice wine it contained as Itachi threw Naruto to the ground again, the latter promptly breaking into laughter as he lay in the dirt. The older of the pair gave him an indulgent half-smile and then offered out a hand to help the Vessel back to his feet.

To finally laying the past to rest, Sakura thought and she took another tiny sip.

* * *

It felt surreal to Itachi when he initially stepped through the gates of Konoha at the end of their week-long journey from River into the heart of Fire Country.

The last time hadn't been anything like this. His focus had been set and his intentions were elsewhere and he was still supposed to be the bloodthirsty traitor of the village. He hadn't had time to stop and soak in _home_ because it hadn't been home at all then—it _couldn't_ be. In fact, he had been so convinced he would never see _home_ again that his heart was pounding in his ears as he passed the gates and for just a moment he couldn't catch his breath.

In some small way, in the back of his mind, it didn't feel right. His future should have been a shallow grave or the belly of the first lucky carrion beast to stumble upon his broken corpse. Even so, he couldn't stop himself from breathing a little deeper when he caught the first whiff of spices and flowers in the air and he couldn't stop himself from relishing the warm breeze that rushed around him. Home. He inhaled again and it was dizzyingly wonderful, like that was the first deep breath he had taken since he had left.

_Home_, he thought again as he tried to soak it in.

Itachi put concentrated effort into not thinking too much about his family. His mother and father had, in their final moments, urged him to finish his task and at the time that had almost made him turn his blade on himself. Even now, the thought alone nearly brought him to his knees. But he couldn't help but think of them as he stood there. Would they have ultimately wanted this for him? Could he ever feel worthy of it, even if they did?

"Itachi?"

Naruto looked concerned, but Itachi didn't have to answer as Sakura stepped forward and laid a hand on her friend's arm. "Just give him a minute, Naruto," she half-whispered. "Look, I've got to get these sprouts to the green house before they refuse to spring back for me. Would you take them to see Kakashi?"

"No problem," the blond replied. "Say hey to Ino for me."

She nodded and spared him a peck on the cheek before looking to Kisame. "I won't leave you stranded with Naruto for too long," she promised. "I'll try to catch as soon as possible."

The swordsman laughed at that and they exchanged a friendly fist-bump before the girl looked to Itachi. He caught her eye and nodded, though he wasn't entirely sure what he was trying to say. He was just grateful when she smiled back at him, apparently understanding his meaning even when he himself did not.

With one last pointed order to Naruto to go directly to the Tower, she then disappeared in a burst of pink petals.

Itachi ran his fingers through his bangs to free some of the petals that had gotten caught in the strands and he held a small handful of them in his palm before releasing them and letting the breeze carry them away. His eyes followed them, sweeping over the buildings farther into the village and the distant, stone faces of the Kages that looked over the village. He took another breath and listened to the way the breeze rattled its way through the newly born leaves on the trees that flanked the gates.

Eventually, Itachi's eyes met Naruto's and the boy offered him a crooked smile as he stood with his hands folded behind his head. "Welcome home, Itachi," he said. "C'mon, we'd better go check in with Kakashi like Sakura said."

The Uchiha nodded at that and started to follow the boy. _Home_, he thought again and that time it didn't sound _quite_ so strange.

* * *

1. I have very "meh" feelings about this chapter, but anyone who knows me will know that that's how I feel about most of my chapters, so feel free to ignore me.

2. Holy jeez was the response to this mind-blowing. Hungry for some Ita/Saku, are ye? I appreciate all of the reviews and I hope I can live up to the expectations.

3. The POVs skip around a lot here and I'm sorry for that. I debated about doing a purely Sakura chapter and then there were a lot of parts I wanted from Itachi's perspective, so you got a mix of both.

4. I made fun of Kishi's tendency to go all philosopher on our asses in the manga, but I feel like I've kind of done that myself in this chapter and even a little during the last one too. Hopefully it at least made some more SENSE than Kishi's insane hobo ramblings.

5. When Sakura's asking Kisame about a bloodline limit, she's referencing his his-ness; the blue and the gills and the massive chakra stores. I've seen a lot of different explanations done to cover why he is the way he is and I've always just rolled with that particular answer. However, I have left it ambiguous, so choose whatever explanation best suits your opinion.

6. I feel the need to explain this now just to get it off the table: after a zombie war, I don't think Sakura or _anyone_ for that matter would be all _that_ put off by Kisame. Also he and Naruto spar together because imagining that scene made me laugh, so deal with it.

7. Actually on the subject of Kisame's appearance: when Itachi and Sakura are discussing it and Itachi mentions the mind being the body's plaything, he means in that instance that our thoughts and the way we perceive things are controlled by our senses. We might _know_ better, but we're sensual creatures and we can't help ourselves. So, he's saying that even though ninja ought to really know better than to fall for genjutsu, since they're trained to be on the alert for that kind of thing, it still works because we can be so easily mislead by what our senses are telling us. Remember when I wasn't going to philosophize on you guys? Sorry.

8. Yes, yes I will address Sasuke in more detail. Later. Like, a lot more detail. Like, I've got an arc planned out for him and he'll be making actual appearances (though not in such a way that it'll in any way interfere with our friends in Konoha). Yeah, I don't know. I suppose I've come more and more to blame Kishi's ineptitude for the fact that Sasuke really could have been a monumentally tragic character and instead he's just an asshole and not a sympathetic one either. But yeah, I'm going to round-out and try to redeem that little shit head whether he wants it or not.

**So yeah, please review and let me know what you think!**


	3. Footing

**Down the Road**

**Three  
**

* * *

Sakura had a predictable routine and a fairly consistent list of duties she attended to when in the village. She woke early, showered, dressed, and wandered into her kitchen to eat something small for breakfast. On the days that she had a shift at the hospital she went straight there to tend to patients and see that Tsunade was up on all of the goings-on. On the days that she didn't, she went to the Hokage Tower. Kakashi took his job quite seriously despite his grudge against it, but he did tend to slack off and misbehave in order to ensure that Sakura would keep coming back to help. In his words, "misery loves company" and if Tsunade could have a beleaguered assistant, why couldn't he?

She didn't mind.

Her afternoons were sometimes spent training with the boys. Other times she went to Ino's and helped in the Yamanaka green house, where they cultivated both the flowers they sold and the plants the hospital required for antidotes and medicines.

More recently, she had begun sinking her time into the village's orphanage.

"Sakura!"

Sakura laughed as she was nearly bowled over by the kids that rushed her at the gate. She lifted one young girl onto her hip and reached out with her other hand to muss the hair of a boy standing nearby. He was nearly twelve and stuck his tongue out at the action but didn't attempt to stop her.

She wished that she was a good enough person to say that it was entirely out of the goodness of her heart that she did this, but she couldn't lie to herself. Kakashi and all of his lessons over the years had rendered that impossible. She knew she did it for her own good as much of theirs; for the catharsis.

The war had wrung Sakura dry. Not just the war, but the years that had followed it as well. She had spent months on end away from the village, a backpack of mission scrolls bearing down on her. They were to be carried out consecutively for the most efficiency. Those had been months spent curled up against her team for rest and warmth, or wide awake to keep watch as they slept; months of eating nothing but rations; months of planning entry points and rendezvous spots; months of being on her guard at all times to keep herself and her team safe—all to reenergize a weakened, spent Konoha. The highs of victory were short lived and always soon squashed by the next objective they had to complete. Even her time at home held little joy with the soul-sucking knowledge that she'd have to leave again almost as soon as she had arrived looming over it.

In the last five years of nearly endless missions, she had calculated that she had spent just three months worth of time at home in total between them. Even then it wasn't to rest. There was a hospital to rebuild, patients to rehabilitate, and work to be done in spades to bring the village back to its former glory. There were diplomatic meetings to attend and envoys to meet. It never ended. With Tsunade's retirement and Kakashi's succession, it just somehow managed to get worse. The hospital was flipped on its ear as Tsunade could now enforce a much more dictatorial set of rules and Kakashi needed help with his duties and to be startled awake when he tried to sleep in the middle of the day. The latter wasn't even nearly as much fun as it sounded.

It had been just two months since she had broken into tears in Kakashi's office for no reason good enough to justify embarrassing herself in front of her former captain. Not that Kakashi had been anything but kind about it. It had made him visibly uncomfortable, but he had sat with her through it. When her tears had dried, she explained that she was just tired and could no longer see the reason for _any_ of it any more. Getting out of bed was almost impossible, her days were a blur, and nothing seemed capable of penetrating the thick haze of apathy that had started to cloud her perspective. She didn't feel a connection to her patients any more, sleep was difficult to come by, and each mission felt more pointless than the last.

Kakashi hadn't said a word to interrupt her near-hysterical rambling. Instead, he listened as he sat with a hand resting on her back until she finished. He didn't speak even then, but instead got up and went to his desk. He scribbled something out on a piece of paper and then returned to her side with it.

It was an order for indefinite leave.

"Battle fatigue," he had explained, as if that was all that needed to be said.

And it was.

She had diagnosed it enough to know that all of what she had just told him would have brought her to the same conclusions—had it been someone other than herself.

The idea of leave came as a horrible sort of relief. She felt weak and pathetic for how badly she realized she wanted it. She had thought she had overcome her uselessness, but it felt like she was letting herself and her team down and giving into something that she should have been able to overcome. Naruto and Sai weren't affected in the same way—didn't seem to be, anyway—and it made her feel like a load of deadweight. Just like when she was a genin.

She had tried to fight Kakashi on his decision, but he had been adamant. "You're free to train and continue working at the hospital. You might even get a mission or two if you're not expected to engage enemies," he had said and his hand squeezed her shoulder again. He paused and took a breath before looking at her. "I'm so sorry, Sakura. We were on so many of those missions together and I still didn't see it. I should have."

He sounded genuinely aggrieved by this and Sakura wondered if it all wasn't weighing just as heavily on him too. It was a cruel thing, but she couldn't deny that the prospect made her feel a little better. He hadn't wanted to be Hokage, after all. She knew he had agreed with Naruto in mind—knowing it would give him one more thing to recommend him when his time came—but he hadn't been happy about it. Accepting it had just been what he saw as his duty.

Maybe that was why Sakura was spending so much more time in the office lately. He had always been a good grounding force in her life and he seemed grateful for the company—although that could have just been the misery thing again. At least they were miserable together, which made it all, somehow, marginally more bearable.

"One of my teeth fell out!"

"My wrist hurts when I twist it around like this."

"Why are my boogers are green?"

Sakura genuinely enjoyed the kids and it was gratifying that the most complicated procedure she usually had to perform for them was healing a sprained ankle because of skipping too much rope. This was especially true after some of her more draining shifts at the hospital.

Her pride still battled with her good sense every now and then when it came to her enforced leave from action. She should be better than that. She should be stronger than something as amorphous as "battle fatigue". Who was she to wimp out when Sai and Naruto and everyone else were still going so strong? If Tsunade was disappointed, she didn't say it. Not that she would. The blonde was getting soft in her old age and everyone, she insisted, went through this.

Apparently, Sakura had thought somewhat bitterly at the time, not _everyone_.

In truth, this was a lot of the reason why she kept herself so busy because such thoughts took advantage of whatever brief moments of stagnation they could to attack her.

"Hey, Forehead!"

Sakura smiled at the familiar nickname as she entered the greenhouse. She had left the orphanage almost an hour ago and decided to walk. It was quite the trek, but she never minded being outside at this time of the year. Konoha was blooming and the fresh air was a good balm for her dour thoughts.

Ino was just coming from the rear of the greenhouse, wearing an apron with her hair tied up and hugging a bag of fertilizer to her front. Her skin glistened with sweat and her face and arms were smudged with dirt. Sakura had never let it be said that her friend was afraid to get her hands dirty, because _this_ was how she knew her best really. "Pig," the medic answered with equal cheer. "How are my seedlings?"

"They're quite comfortably situated. Mom took care of them right away for you after you left," the blond answered happily. "I'm glad you stopped by because I haven't gotten the run down yet about your mission and the rumor mill is absolutely useless in this case; too much myth breeding with mere assumption."

"As with everything the rumor mill churns out."

Ino shrugged. "You learn how to sort the good from the bad after a while." She dropped the fertilizer bag on one of the many paved walks that formed a grid, dividing the plots of rich, black soil. "So, spill."

Sakura shrugged as she took an apron from a nearby workbench and put in on over her plain shift. "There isn't much to tell," she said. "They're just people, Ino. I've not even talked to either of them since we got back."

"Pft, yeah, whatever," Ino snorted back. "C'mon, give me something. I'm just curious."

"You always are."

The blonde smiled at that. "As a Yamanaka, I will take that as a compliment," she replied with false haughtiness. "You must have gotten a feel for them, at least. I mean, Kakashi wouldn't let them in the village if they really were as blood thirsty as they used to say."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Kisame is, but he's no threat to the village itself. He just enjoys fighting. A lot."

"Sounds like a typical Mist-nin from my experience—rogue or not. What about Itachi?"

The medic shook her head without even taking a moment to think. "Itachi is… actually, I have no idea."

"Sounds about right. I mean, it _is_ Uchiha Itachi. Enigmatic is kind of his thing, I hear."

Sakura shook her head. "It isn't even that," she said. "He's just… you know all of the stories we used to hear, right? That he wanted to test his strength on his clan so he slaughtered them?"

"Or the theory that he had just completely gone around the twist?" Ino shrugged as she pulled on a pair of gardening gloves. "What about them?"

The pinkette sighed and looked at her friend. "All of _that_ makes sense. I mean, you can see someone doing that if they were driven insane or got power mad or whatever. But Itachi _isn't_—not from what I've seen. I mean he's… he's soft-spoken and painfully polite and really quite kind." She shook her head again, this time as if to clear it. "I just can't put the two together."

Ino frowned a bit at that. "Well," she began, a bit hesitant and a bit thoughtful, "we know now that he had _reasons_. I mean, the hostile takeover, saving the village, and what-not."

"The idea that he was crazy is easier to swallow, though. The thought of someone perfectly sane doing that kind of thing to their own family—no matter the reasons—makes me a little itchy under my skin. I know he's a hero, I don't doubt that. It's just… I don't know. I couldn't do it." She shrugged. "Maybe that's the crux of it."

Ino didn't say anything. There wasn't much _to_ say, after all. Instead, she moved closer and wrapped her arms around her friend's waist and laid her head on her shoulder. She smelled like black earth and summery green. Sakura hadn't known that colors could have smells until she met Ino when she was five.

"How'd Naruto do?" the blonde asked after a moment.

Sakura smiled. "Good. Really good, actually," she replied. "He and Itachi seem to understand each other. I don't know how that works."

Ino laughed and straightened to look at her friend, her blue eyes twinkling. "It's_ Naruto_," she said. "I defy anyone to figure out how anything works with him." One of her hands lingered on Sakura's waist as she placed the other on her own hip. "Hey, the family's doing dinner tonight. Come over. We'll eat and then you can crash at my house if you're too tired to head home afterward. It'll be great."

The medic smiled again. "I'll try to make it," she said. "Thanks, Ino."

Ino smiled and gave her friend a gentle squeeze before turning away. "I know you're anxious to get a look at your sprouts," she said. "Mom took good care of them, I promise. She said that she's only ever seen them grow in the wild, so she's eager to see how they do in a greenhouse. They're going to get the very best care."

Sakura nodded. Ino had been vocally grateful for Kakashi's decision to bench her considering how ragged the medic had worked herself in the years following the war. _"Good. I'm glad! You look after everyone else, but no one thinks to look after you and you _like_ it that way. It's about time someone stepped in. You need this."_

It didn't make Sakura feel any better about her current position and it didn't silence the mean-spirited voice of her insecurities that harangued her for being weak, but she was grateful that Ino understood no matter how little difference it made in the grand scheme of things.

* * *

Sakura had come to think of Sai as something like a house pet.

Specifically a house cat. She could never be sure when she would find him asleep on her sofa or lurking around her kitchen table with a sketchpad. It was never something she felt the need to question, though.

Sai was much the same as he had always been, even now after the war. He was still stoic and unflappable; still the picture of composure and steadiness. However, the smiles that had once been faked were now genuine and he was slowly learning to express the emotions he had long been deprived of. However, he still made a very intimidating house cat as he lay sprawled out on her sofa in his ANBU armor, complete with the whisker-faced mask that put her to mind of a rat or mouse.

Sakura sat down beside him on the couch, knowing that her first steps inside had woken him and was not worried about doing so now. She smiled and reached up to remove his mask. He was watching her, one eye barely cracked open to regard her sleepily. "I have not slept," he confessed to her. "I travelled through the last two nights to get home faster. I know you do not approve of that."

She shrugged and laid a glowing, chakra-infused hand to his chest. "I don't," she said. "But I've done the same thing. You know that I have."

"Naruto and I have long accepted that you do not apply the same standards of care to yourself as you do to others. The hypocrisy is annoying, but it is a part of your nature. It is endearing."

Sakura rolled her eyes and only let her chakra die when she was satisfied that he was unwounded save for some minor bruising of his ribs that she would heal later if he asked. "How was your mission?"

"Routine," he replied, bored and almost dismissive. His eyes sharpened and cleared as he regarded her with renewed interest. "And yours?"

She and Naruto had departed before him, explaining him the details of their assignment even though it was supposedly classified information. Not that Kakashi would care. He had once been party to such sessions. "Successful," she said. "We returned with them about two days ago."

Sai frowned marginally. "You do not seem pleased with this development," he murmured. "Does their presence worry you?"

Sakura shook her head and waved a hand. "No, it's not like that," she said. "They are both agreeable and there's no need to worry about their presence in the village—not that I can see at least. It's just a lot to take in."

Sai hummed. "You are still greatly conflicted about everything that happened to the Uchiha clan, I know."

He laid a hand to rest gently atop one of her knees and she covered it with one of her own. "I feel closer to it than I really should, considering Sasuke…" She stroked the back of his gloved hand with her thumb and then set about removing the glove first and then his bracer. She laid both on the coffee table beside his mask. "I don't have any right to feel that way, I know."

"It happened in your village and concerns someone you knew from a young age. It affected you." His tone was soft, but firm. He was quiet for a moment before adding, "You still worry for him."

Sakura nodded. "You know I do and I know you don't like it."

Sai's lips twisted in a barely perceptible way. "He hurt you and Naruto. He had no right."

She started to gently undo the clasps of his breastplate. There was one on either side at his ribs and one at each shoulder that held the front and back of the bleached, hardened leather snugly to his frame. She had tried it on before just to amuse herself and found it even less comfortable than a flak vest. "He was young and confused and angry," she said. "I don't blame him."

"I do."

It was defiant of him and Sakura was glad for it, the context aside. She was glad for any time that Sai acted in a way she knew to be contradictory to his training and expressed a dissenting opinion rather than blithely agreeing.

Sakura said nothing else as she eased the back of his armor out from under him and then laid both pieces down on the floor beside the couch. Next, she rid him of his other glove and bracer, undid his greaves, which were held firmly in place with laces and buckles, and then gently removed his boots. "Better?" she asked when she was finished and his things were laid out on the coffee table and floor beside the couch.

Sai nodded as he let out a quiet, contented sigh.

"Good. Get some sleep. If you get hungry, help yourself to what's in the kitchen."

She gave his hand a final pat and then stood up and moved out into her kitchen, her footsteps now silent on the bare wood floors.

* * *

The memorial stone was a beautiful work of craftsmanship with all of its polished, gleaming facets of shiny onyx that lazily reflected the light of the evening sun.

Sakura hated it. Most everyone who knew a single name etched on its face did and she knew more than a dozen. Some of them she had known herself, like Asuma and a handful of ninja who had been her patients at some point or another. There were at least two names she remembered from the war that stood out in particular. All she had been able to do for them was sit at their sides and hold their hands until they gave themselves away to the aether. She had done that at least a dozen times throughout the war, but those names were carved on memorials faraway in their respective villages.

Other names were ones that she only recognized by proxy. They were names from Tsunade's past, from Kakashi's, and even from Naruto's. They haunted the people she loved, so they haunted her. Respectfully, she traced the ones she knew with her fingertips as she said a prayer of gratitude for each of them. She traced Jiraiya's twice.

Then there were the name that weren't there. Like Sai's brother that she had never known but who she was endlessly grateful to. Shin had sheltered and fed the tiny piece of humanity left in Sai— the one bit that ROOT hadn't managed to reach. He had kept it alive so that it could flourish later. He had never officially existed, though. Shin, as Sai had explained years ago, wasn't even his real name. The Gods only knew what was and it made very little sense to pay tribute to someone who had been a ghost even while they lived.

Sakura reached out and on one of the unmarked facets of the stone she wrote out Shin's name with her fingertip and said a prayer of thanks for him as well.

And then an unbidden thought came to her next that made her heart sink in a painful and familiar way: _Sasuke_.

His absence left them in a sort of limbo. No part of her wanted to see him dead, but to see his name on the stone would have at last been the end of it. Instead, they were in this state of not knowing where he was or what was happening and, worst of all, there was nothing they could do about it even if they did. Would he ever come home? Had he ever truly come to terms with all that had happened? Did he think of Naruto or of her anymore?

In truth, Sakura didn't let herself think of _him_ very often. That, however, was for sanity's sake. These moments in front of the stone were all she allowed, because even while she still cared for him she also had spent far too much time thinking of him in the past and it was hard enough to move forward as things were already. At present it seemed silly anyway. He was a grown man and he was not lost now in the way he had been when he had first left Konoha. This time he needed to come home of his own accord. _He_ needed to choose if it was still his home at all. He _needed_ to make this decision on his own and however he saw fit.

And _she_ had accepted that. She just wasn't sure if Naruto would ever arrive at that same place with her. Maybe in that way, she actually hated Sasuke. On those rare days when she had herself convinced that she was entirely indifferent to him, she told herself that she only wanted to see him in the village again so that Naruto could finally come to terms with everything.

"Excuse me, I did not mean to intrude."

Sakura crashed back to reality and turned sharply toward the speaker. The only thing that saved her from embarrassment was the realization that the person who had snuck up on her was _Itachi_. She doubted if he knew how to be anything _but_ stealthy. "Itachi," she said quickly, drawing his attention back to her just as he was turning away to leave again. "You don't have to go. I'm done."

* * *

If it had not been for the uniqueness of her features, Itachi might not have recognized Sakura when he came upon her at the monument. Gone was her mission gear, replaced with an utterly civilian shift and sandals with her hair down and loosely braided. She still stood with her back straight and her shoulder squared, but all of her ninja-bred rigidity was gone. There was something softer about her appearance overall; an easiness that she hadn't possessed before.

She was exhausted too, he realized as he drew closer. Her eyes were dark and the smile she gave him, while warm, was also weary.

"I hope I did not interrupt your prayers," he said as he came to stand beside her.

"You didn't. Actually, I'm kind of glad to see you again anyway."

"Oh?" It would take some adjusting, he thought, to get anywhere used to hearing that kind of thing. Yes, she had been very personable while they were en route to Konoha, but he had expected things to change once outside the context of a mission. It had, after all, been a matter of diplomacy. Nothing said that her behavior had to continue once the job was completed to the Hokage's satisfaction.

Sakura shrugged. "I wanted to know how you were doing. I know that Naruto's been to see you, but I've been so busy since our return that I haven't seen him to ask. And I'm sorry if he's been a pain, by the way. He's a bit like a stray dog: feed him once—or spar in this case—and you'll never be rid of him."

The corner of Itachi's lips lifted and he shook his head. "He is not a bother. I appreciate the company and Kisame and I both have appreciated his assistance."

"That's good. So you're settled then? Where would you be staying…?" Her eyes narrowed a bit skeptically as her voice grew quieter and her words trailed off. "You aren't camping in your own village, are you?"

His village. He had always thought of Konoha as being his village even while in exile, but it was nice to hear the words spoken from someone else's lips. "No. Naruto saw to that, actually. Your former captain Yamato has quite a useful set of abilities."

Sakura laughed and her face brightened a little as a result. "Oh, Yamato," she said with a great amount of affection. "A genetic descendant of the First, an S-ranked ANBU Captain, and the village carpenter. Do you suppose the First would roll over in his grave if he knew that his revered bloodline ability was being used to accomplish such mundane tasks?"

She said it with such cheer that Itachi couldn't help but smile a little wider as he mulled over the answer. "I would not know. However, from what I have heard about Senju Hashirama he might have actually found it quite amusing."

She laughed again and looked to him with her eyes dancing. Then some of her cheer faded a bit as her eyes trailed back to the memorial stone and she shifted her weight away from him onto her other foot. Her fingers fiddled with the shoulder strap of her bag that crossed diagonally over her chest. "I should go and let you have your privacy."

Itachi shook his head. "That will not be necessary," he said. "I have had years to mourn and have done so. Today, I just came to look. I have not seen the stone since I left; since the names…"

It was not so much that he could not say it. He had spoken so matter-of-factly about the massacre for so many years that saying it came easily even if it reopened the wounds a little bit every time he did so. For Sakura, though, he did not need to reiterate himself. She knew. He suspected she knew better than most. To have heard of it was one thing, but she had known his living victim and saw firsthand the depths he had been driven to. Whoever the boy was that she had known was gone. In a way, Itachi knew that he had killed him as well.

"How did you go on after…?"

Sakura's voice was barely above a whisper before her words just died all together, but it pierced the deathly stillness of the clearing as if she had shouted. He glanced at her. Her eyes were trained on the stone, but she looked to be far off in some other place as she stood cradling her right arm to her chest with her left and her right hand resting over her heart, as if attempting to soothe away a phantom ache.

Her words weren't accusing him. It wasn't a grant of innocence or praise, but nor was it one of condemnation. She spoke of him as a man. A mindless automaton did not struggle to move forward after completing a mission. A ruthless killer thirsting for power didn't mourn for the lives he took in pursuit of it. She was granting him his humanity, struggles, and regret. She was not speaking _of_ a murderer she had heard well-circulated campfire stories about, but _to_ Uchiha Itachi as a mere man.

He wondered if she knew what she had just done and if there was any way to go about thanking her for it without sounding completely mad.

"I'm so sorry. I don't have any right to ask that—"

"No," he cut in and she looked to him, her eyes fractionally widened with surprise. "You did not… it was only just barely." He paused to find the words, knowing he wasn't making much sense. "If not for Konoha; for Sasuke…" He shook his head and turned away again to look instead at their reflections in the stone. "I… put that part of me to sleep; kept alive but suppressed. It was something I had learned to do in ANBU so that I could finish a mission even in the very worst of circumstances."

Itachi wasn't sure what, if any, sense that could possibly make to her, but it felt like he had shrugged off at least a small portion of the weight that bore down upon him. He looked at her to gauge her response and saw that she was still staring at him. Her expression had softened and her eyes were unbearably kind. He couldn't tell if she pitied him or was simply being sympathetic, but she somehow seemed to understand and that mattered more. He wondered how often she had to decipher such rambling from her patients as she acted not only as their healer but their sounding board.

He looked away again. He was at ease with her in a way he had never been with a stranger and _that_ made him uneasy. She had a sweet face and a kind demeanor that was off-balancing. How often did that give her an advantage? Underestimating someone was the mistake of cocky, untested genin, but even the most seasoned veterans made it and the consequences often proved dire.

That knowledge warred with what he had personally observed of the girl's candid demeanor. He had not sensed any subterfuge on her part and he could count on a single hand the times he had been fooled by a simple guise of innocence.

"Has Naruto spoken to you about Sasuke?"

He glanced at her from the corner of his eye and gave a small nod of confirmation. She was staring at the stone again. "He has," he said. "Only once, though. Why?"

Sakura tucked some stray pieces of hair behind one of her ears. "I was just curious. I thought that he would, of course. Sasuke…" She shifted her weight again as she mulled over her choice of words and Itachi turned just slightly toward her to listen. "After Madara fell, Sasuke left before Naruto regained consciousness. They never had a chance to speak. I know it bothers him, but I don't know what to do for him. It won't be long before he'll want to leave the village again to look for Sasuke. It's been longer than usual already."

Her brow was tightly knitted with concern and the look in her eyes made it clear that she was almost entirely elsewhere and consumed by her thoughts.

"I have told Naruto that Sasuke will need to return of his own volition," Itachi spoke before he could stifle the urge to offer some solace to her. "I am afraid that it will take some time before he truly accepts that for fact."

She mutely nodded in response.

The silence stretched on for a little while longer and was broken only by the quiet sound of Sakura shifting her weight again, her shoulders turning away from him just a little with her movement, indicating her intentions before she even spoke them aloud. "I should go," she said again, with a little more conviction. "It was nice to see you again, Itachi."

This time, Itachi did not try to stop her and simply nodded.

She was nearly at the edge of the clearing before she paused. "Itachi?"

He looked to her, prompting her to speak.

"Say hello to Kisame for me and if you two need anything, let me know."

Itachi just nodded and she started on her way again, eventually vanishing into the trees and leaving him to his thoughts.

* * *

The wind was moaning as it blew through the bare limbs of the forest, biting at the trunks of trees and carrying with it the loose powder that had fallen the night before.

Sasuke just barely felt the icy cold as it lapped at his cheeks. He blinked, but he wasn't exactly awake or seeing. The only things could feel at all were his face and the fact that his eyelashes were frozen together.

He blinked again and suddenly the murky gray light of morning pierced his clouded vision just enough that he could almost make out the silhouettes of the trees that surrounded him. They cradled him in the bosom of a clearing and did what they could, leafless and skeletal as they were, to shield him from the icy, howling winds. It wasn't much. It wasn't enough, either.

He was dying. He was sure of it when he inhaled and an invisible knife gouged into his lungs and tore through his throat, splitting him open from belly to neck. It wouldn't be long, or he hoped not. Fate was a cruel and merciless bitch and the gods were laughing at him.

It wasn't the sort of death he had envisioned himself succumbing to, but it was the kind he knew he deserved. The kind that was lonely and cold. It would be prolonged too, if there was justice in the world.

He thought of the aimless miles he had trekked all over the world, searching for something unclear to even himself. He longed to fill the empty, aching void that left him a mere husk of flesh, but nothing did. However, wandering kept the pain it caused at bay, so he moved for days on end until his body simply refused to go another inch. But it was pointless. The beast of emptiness eventually found him anyway and sunk its teeth into him again, tearing away another piece.

It was that tireless game of hunter and prey that found him where he was. What he had at first thought to be the effects of the cold had soon settled into his lungs and he found himself hamstringed by fatigue, fevers, and body-wracking coughing spells. He had stayed on the move for as long as he could, in search of civilization among the frozen wastelands of the northern territories, but his body had given in to the merciless environment in the middle of a desolate nowhere. It could have been days since he had collapsed, but he would never know for sure.

At his side, Sasuke's fingers gave a violent spasm and the wrenching pain that tore through his frozen muscles gave a tiny thrill. It was something, even if it was only a sign of his impending death.

He took a shuddering breath in, wincing at the pain that ripped into his ribs, and thought of Konoha as he so often did. He thought of the small apartment he had stayed in during his formative years and of how, at this time, the village, its trees, and animals would be coming back to life after its winter hibernation. Of all the places he had travelled, that was where his mind always went to find peace.

Inevitably, his thoughts turned then to Naruto and Sakura and he wondered if they had managed to find some sort of happiness or a sense of normalcy in the wake of the war. He hoped so, for their sakes. He hoped that they weren't looking for him or waiting earnestly for his return to come, because he didn't know if he could ever face them again in light of all that had happened. Given his current circumstances, he was positive he would never have the chance.

His eyes began to burn with tears, but he doubted if he could actually shed them. His vision grew hazy and his lids heavy again as the combination of wrenching pain and exhaustion began to tempt him into returning to the blissful dark of unconsciousness and then to whatever might lie beyond it.

He made a concentrated effort never to do so, but that seemed pointless at the moment so he put his reservations aside and began then to think of Itachi. The pain in his chest grew tenfold and he squeezed his eyes shut tightly in a grimace. Maybe this was for the best. Even if someday he managed to work himself up to facing his old teammates, how could he ever face Itachi again? How pointless it had all been. How blindly he had acted.

As much as he feared the very idea of having to face his brother again, Sasuke found that he wanted nothing more than for a chance to throw his arms around him. In fact, he wouldn't have minded the chance to do the same with Naruto and Sakura. He was never good at it, but he had thought he might get the chance to apologize—and explain himself—before his death. He wanted to hear that they forgave him, even if he didn't deserve it; even if they didn't really mean it.

An involuntary sob wrenched its way free from inside of him and the effort sent another bolt of pain through him and up his dry throat. He could feel how cracked his lips had become and how chapped his skin was from the wind and cold. His eyes and the fragile skin around them burned as a few salty tears trickled free of his lashes.

He hated to cry, but that didn't really matter anymore, did it? There was no one to see it and what right did he have to be too proud to do so at this point?

The sound of footsteps suddenly pierced through his thoughts and all of his senses went on alert at once. Out here he couldn't imagine that it was anything but an animal. Hopefully it was something benign. As resigned as he was to die he didn't particularly care for the idea of being _eaten_ even if he couldn't feel the greater majority of his limbs. However, he was too stiff and numb from the cold to really move and he was forced to lay there and strain his ears listening for the next sound.

More footsteps soon followed and then, to his shock, he was suddenly staring up into a pair of big, midnight blue eyes.

Sasuke blinked to make sure he was actually seeing what he was seeing. And he was, to his utter amazement. A little girl, maybe all of two years old was staring down at him. Her pale, white-blond hair skimmed her shoulders in a long, tangled mess and her big eyes were set into a pale, cherub-cheeked face.

They blinked at each other again. Then the girl crouched down and laid one mitten-covered hand against his cheek. Sasuke somewhat belatedly realized that she was wiping away the combination of tears and frost that had collected there. Then the little girl suddenly straightened and removed her heavy, woolen cloak. She spread it out over his chest and patted it gently before just as quickly as she had come she was gone.

Sasuke was in shock. With some half-hearted sarcasm he might have thanked the girl for her efforts, vain though they would prove to be, but he couldn't even fully comprehend what the hell had just happened. Had he not scoured every mountainside for even the tiniest trace of civilization? Or was the girl just some kind of figment of his sickness-addled brain?

"Yes, I see him, child. Quit pulling on me."

The voice was cracked and old, worn by time, but distinctly female nonetheless and suddenly it wasn't the round-faced little girl that Sasuke was staring up at, but a withered old crone whose skin looked like tree bark and hair like white straw. She was also dressed in a heavy wool cloak and mittens with a fur pelt draped over her and pinned at her shoulders. In one hand she carried a staff of gnarled wood.

"You alive, boy?" She poked him with the end of her staff.

Sasuke blinked at her. "Maybe…?"

"Good enough," she declared with something akin to amusement. "I'll get the sledge. Try not to die in the interim. Tomoe, stay here."

The little girl was suddenly at his side, sitting cross-legged in the snow. Sasuke managed to turn his head just enough to look at her, frowning as he considered her. "Tomoe?" he said. "Is that your name?"

She stared at him for a moment and then nodded once. "Toto," she confirmed. She laid a hand on him. "At doh?"

He wanted to laugh, but couldn't muster the energy necessary to do so. Instead, he smiled the best he could with his lips so cracked and blistered. Tomoe, he thought with some hysteria-riddled humor. There ought to be three of her. "Sasuke," he told her at length. "My name is Sasuke."

Tomoe squinted at him. "_Sa-ki_," she said carefully. She smiled and then patted his chest in an almost fond sort of way. "Saki."

His lips lift a little higher out of wry amusement. "Close enough."

The old crone returned minutes later, leading a dog that put Sasuke to mind of the Inuzuka clan immediately because of its sheer size. He was wolf-like in every way, with a long snout and sharp, upright ears that twitched and swiveled to take in his environment. His white coat was wooly and thick, at its longest around his neck, but he was thoroughly brushed and groomed.

Sasuke barely had the ability to help the old crone as she hefted him to his feet with strength that belied her age. All he could do from there was gracelessly collapse onto the sledge the dog was leashed to, but that seemed good enough. Tomoe immediately climbed on and laid beside him, rubbing one of his hands vigorously between hers as the old bat threw several heavy furs over them.

"Your name?" he asked the old woman as she took a seat at the fore of the sledge with the reins in hand.

"Baba," Tomoe replied, somewhat insistently.

The old woman rasped out a laugh as she pulled the hood of her cloak up over her hair. "I suppose that'll do for you as well," she said. "Call me Baba."

* * *

Sasuke wandered in and out of consciousness on the sledge and really only kind of came to when he was being shuffled down some steps. At that point he had warmed up enough to have some semblance of control over his limbs and he managed to vaguely follow in the direction he was being guided.

Every noise and sensation that followed for the next eon (or so it felt) blended together into an incomprehensible mess. Eventually, he became aware that he was sitting on a wooden stool in a room of some sort, but that was the extent of it. However, his troubling predicament was put to an end when he pulled to his feet and his shirt was yanked over his head. The first shock of the air against his cold, bare skin brought his consciousness immediately to the fore, which was quite inconvenient timing as he was then rendered trouser-free and pushed into a bath tub with a cacophonous splash.

Sasuke sat up, coughing and understandably perturbed. His arms still felt a bit like dead fish, so the best he could was half-heartedly try to slap away the dripping curtain of his own hair that had fallen into his face. He really needed it cut, he thought distractedly.

He had only managed to _just_ uncover one eye when another tidal wave of water washed over his head and he was rendered blind again by his own mane. Somewhere behind him, the old hag was laughing. "Tomoe, take his clothes and find him something dry to wear."

Sasuke managed to shake his hair out of his eyes again and shot the old woman a cross look as she was placing a bucket back in the corner of the room. "You're enjoying this," he grumbled.

"A bit," she answered cheerfully. The room was a cellar of some sort, with stone walls, ceilings, and floors. An oil lantern was hanging from a hook on the wall and was burning brightly, washing the room in its warm glow. The tub he was sitting in was ancient and cast from metal. The water in it was shallow, but surprisingly warm. He wondered if there was some sort of spring nearby that it had been drawn from.

Again a far wall was a wooden work bench and above it a series of wooden shelves stacked with glass bottles and jars filled with various substances obscured by the dark brown of the glass. There were bunches of herbs and roots hanging overhead as well, bundled together by twine and nailed into place to let dry.

Baba had picked a handful of glass jars from the shelves and was busily measuring out the ingredients and dropping them into a mortar. When she had finished grinding them with a pestle, she came to Sasuke's side and dumped the contents into the bath. This was followed by what appeared to be a handful of salt drawn from a roughly woven sack in the far corner of the room and then another handful of something else taken from another bag. The mixture was fragrant and ignited a pleasant burn in his sinuses and throat.

"I don't know how long I was out there," Sasuke said, to fill the quiet that was pressing in on them.

The old woman hummed. "Likely not as long as you think," she replied. "You're chilled, but you don't look frostbitten." She had taken a clean cloth from a bundle on the work table and reached down to soak it in the bath water before wringing it out and draping it over his head. Then gently, she pushed him back so that he was propped against the wall of the tub. "Just rest for a bit. You ought to start feeling thawed soon enough. We'll add a bit more warm water then and get you scrubbed up so I can take a look at you. Tea first, though."

* * *

"Is she your granddaughter?"

"No."

Sasuke frowned at the floor. He was seated in front of a stone hearth in another room where a fire was burning brightly in a stone hearth. They were underground, though how far he didn't know. The hallways they had come through from the washroom were labyrinthine and he had been careful to keep close on Baba's heels so as not to be lost in them.

Tomoe had picked a pair of roughly woven trousers and a simple tunic for him to wear and he was glad for them, though he couldn't fathom where they had come from. Not that he was in a position to be choosy. In fact, he just was grateful to be dry for what felt like the first time in a month. He was warm too. The old hag had poured a half a pot of tea down his throat before letting him up from the bath. Now she had him seated in front of the fire and nursing another cup as she toweled his hair dry.

In the strangest way, he was grateful for the contact. She was being gentler now than she had been earlier when inspecting his every scrape and cut and scouring clean his hands and feet to check them for signs of frostbite, but even then he found he didn't begrudge her for it. He had not interacted so closely with another living person in five years. To be cared for to any extent was a welcomed thing.

"Who is she then?"

"I found her in the snow three months ago. I imagine she came from the village north of here."

"There's a village nearby?"

"There was before it was sacked and burned to the ground. Not sure how she made it out alive when no one else did."

Sasuke glanced across the room to Tomoe, who was sleeping soundly under a pile of blankets on a bedroll. She was curled up beside the wolf-beast from before, which was now freed of its pull harness and reins and made the room feel that much smaller.

"I can't pay you," he said after a while longer.

"I've no use for money," Baba answered dismissively. She rubbed gently behind his ears and turned his head to check a gouge in his scalp where he had stumbled and hit his head upon a bit of rock in one of his fevers. "You'll stay and recover here. You'll help us with chores and the like until it thaws. Then you can move on if you wish."

"It thaws this far north?"

"Aye, for a few months. Enough to travel."

He mulled this over and winced when she pried at his wound a little more.

"I have to wonder what one of your kind is doing so far from home," Baba spoke after a significant pause. "Ninja, no?"

Sasuke stiffened a bit.

One of her hands ran over his back where he knew a mess of scars had left his skin discolored and uneven. It was one of the few he wore with genuine pride. What mobility he had lost in that shoulder because of the scar tissue was worth the time it had given Naruto to drive a Rasengen through Madara's chest. "You are so young," Baba went on, "But you have so many scars. I know of no other life that is so hard on a body."

A breath that he had not realized he was holding silently slid out from between his teeth, but he didn't relax. "I was," he confirmed after several moments had passed.

"Was? And what are you now? A rogue? One of those missing-nin?"

No, he wasn't. He had confirmed that a long time ago. At least, he wasn't so far as Konoha was concerned and that was all that concerned him. It didn't really bother him if another country wanted his blood. To have a few bounties on one's head was almost a rite of passage among ninja. It made travel troublesome, but when the proper care was taken there wasn't much to worry about on that front.

"I don't know."

The gentle rubbing of the towel against his scalp paused again. "You don't know? Have you lost your way, then?" she asked.

A part of Sasuke wanted to laugh bitterly at that idea and another part of him was crushed by an overwhelming sadness. "I don't know if I ever really had one."

The old woman hummed at this as she pushed the hair out of his face. "What of friends? Family?"

He did laugh at that and the sound came out as a wretched half-rasp, half-croak; a sob more than a laugh. Baba seemed to understand even though he couldn't find any actual words to explain himself with. She ran her gnarled fingers through his hair the way a mother might to sooth their child and another silence fell over them.

In time, his hair was dry and thoroughly combed. Sasuke sat still when the woman wordlessly reached for a rusted pair of shears and began to gently cut away his mane. He said nothing—barely heard the rasping of the blades as they cut through each shaft of hair. His mind was elsewhere; at home in Konoha again, with his team and his brother, in a life that wasn't this one where he was so gutless. He indulged in this and in that time he felt warmer and more alive than he had in years.

* * *

1. Whew! I know this one was a long time coming and I'm glad to finally be posting it.

2. The interest in this story had totally blown my mind and I was to thank everyone for their wonderful reviews. You guys are really the best.

3. Sasuke! Yeah, his introduction was actually going to come later, so this sort of snuck up on me, but eh. Also: OCs! OCs as far as the eye can see! Yes, there will be a point to this, I promise.

4. I had a bugger of a time getting Itachi down the way I wanted him here, so I hope that works for everyone as well. Also, yes this is a much different interpretation of Itachi than what a lot of writers go with, but I think it's much more true to who he really is and doesn't buy so much into the crazy act he was putting on initially.

5. And I will defend until my dying breath the rights of a female character to express herself in ways other than ball-busting femi-nazism or cold-hearted cruelty while STILL remaining a dynamic, strong, female character. The tough-girl stereotype that the girls are often painted with in fanfiction is annoying as FUCK because it makes them even less dimensional than what Kishi has done. Real people have feelings! So, yes! Sakura is experiencing battle fatigue/PTSD to some caliber and she will be working through her feelings in this story. Fuckin' deal with it, yo.

6. Sorry, the above is just a disclaimer to anyone who might want to call me on that because it's absolutely RIDICULOUS that female characters can't express emotion without being called anti-feminist. It annoys me in the same way that male characters can't express feelings or show the remotest bit of affection or concern for another man without being automatically labelled as "gay".

7. Ranty, ranty, rage, rage. Okay now I'm done.

**Review, if you please! Then, with any luck (if this comedy of errors that is my life doesn't get in the way, that is) the next update will be much sooner!**


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